tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.comments2018-11-17T23:40:30.317-05:00Mayerson on AnimationMark Mayersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00065971589878678848noreply@blogger.comBlogger5339125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-17689930724256072162018-01-22T13:41:25.607-05:002018-01-22T13:41:25.607-05:00Dick Lundy is my great great uncle. My family on ...Dick Lundy is my great great uncle. My family on the Lundy side was never close so it&#39;s very interesting to know his legacy. People always rolled their eyes when I told them my uncle animated Donald Duck. I wish I could have met him or meet up with what&#39;s left of the family.C.P. Lundynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-29958137747377650692018-01-04T13:31:37.452-05:002018-01-04T13:31:37.452-05:00Thank you for posting this very sad news -- this h...Thank you for posting this very sad news -- this happened a couple of years ago, but I didn&#39;t know until today. I worked with Richard for years at PDI in the 80&#39;s, and he was a tremendous creative guy to partner with. Thad Beierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11778891630916193235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-20586960933008327682017-11-18T09:14:57.683-05:002017-11-18T09:14:57.683-05:00I remember being pleasantly surprised in the first...I remember being pleasantly surprised in the first How To Train Your Dragon, when the lead character winds up with an artificial leg in the film&#39;s conclusion. Not that I enjoy seeing pain inflicted on animated characters (unless it&#39;s a Ren and Stimpy!), but it lent a (modest) bit of depth/nuance to the character, and makes the point that life isn&#39;t about &quot;everything ends up great&quot; but rather &quot;you will face some things that will hurt you... but you will go on&quot;.Chris Walshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17866497954086048948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-52441345443037753152017-09-21T02:18:53.480-04:002017-09-21T02:18:53.480-04:00Thank you for this, I have to agree with you. Anim...Thank you for this, I have to agree with you. Animation isn&#39;t being used as the wonderful medium it is, but rather it&#39;s stuck as a genre retelling the same tale.Jessicanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-41065673892996712842017-09-11T11:31:40.734-04:002017-09-11T11:31:40.734-04:00Mark, I agree that Kirby is a giant. In the modern...Mark, I agree that Kirby is a giant. In the modern era, more suited to the mock-epic than the epic, Kirby is one of the few whose imagination transcends the fashions of the age. Philip Streetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-88299777150329262182017-08-27T20:43:13.622-04:002017-08-27T20:43:13.622-04:00Without taking anything away from Chaplin&#39;s ve...Without taking anything away from Chaplin&#39;s very real contributions to movie comedy, he acknowledged following in the footsteps of France&#39;s Max Linder, who he called &quot;the master.&quot; One can argue that Chaplin&#39;s tramp character was a burlesque of Linder&#39;s debonair screen persona. Harvey Deneroffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11404330810771500319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-59276012098571047832017-08-24T21:27:19.951-04:002017-08-24T21:27:19.951-04:00This post reminds me of a Go Nagai statement in an...This post reminds me of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Nagai" rel="nofollow">Go Nagai</a> statement in an interview: <i>Having said this, the war experience surely affected my whole childhood and the formation of my personality. Even if I have not experienced any bombing or fighting, all the adults around me kept telling me horrible stories about the war, so I grew up with [the awareness] that my works should deliver a message of peace.<br /><br />I was particularly saddened when I found out that in many countries I was considered to be an author who loves to depict battles and destruction just for the fun of it. [] The reason why I depict the effects of war in my comics is because I strongly believe that a person should learn from childhood how war can be destructive and how much people and societies may suffer from it, just the same way I learned it from the stories of adults around me when I was a little child. If we raise a child telling him only the nice and happy things of life, he will be unable to cope with all the hardships he will inevitably meet in his adulthood; if he doesn&#39;t know the devastating effects of violence and repression, he could […] cause incredible damage and suffering to the people around him.<br /><br />I guess this is one of the reasons why Japanese people, who have been raised for the last 60 years reading comics that some people abroad have labeled as hyper-violent, chose not to be involved in war after 1945 and have stated in their very constitution that they renounce war, as opposed to a country like the US, which has strong censorship against violence in animation and programs for children, but has been at war for most of its recent history.</i>Shane Skekelhttp://vid.me/Fighting_Zenithnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-74830911130425754532017-08-23T15:07:31.787-04:002017-08-23T15:07:31.787-04:00I agree with you, Mark. Animation has become nothi...I agree with you, Mark. Animation has become nothing more than commercials for merchandise; and visual pabulum for the masses...I just can&#39;t stomach it...so, I&#39;ll just work on my own material.John Celestrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09617553681175846578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-68306532292961163692017-08-22T17:52:51.641-04:002017-08-22T17:52:51.641-04:00I see what you are saying. I suppose it is why I h...I see what you are saying. I suppose it is why I have had not the slightest interest in Moana, but recently cried while showing City Lights to my 6 year old (a movie I have seen at least 50 times) AddiePrayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02759164240998658874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-69916503339562140912017-08-22T17:30:31.551-04:002017-08-22T17:30:31.551-04:00Hi Addie. I&#39;m not conflating consequences wit...Hi Addie. I&#39;m not conflating consequences with death. For example, in Tolkien&#39;s Lord of the Rings, Frodo loses a finger and is pained by an injury he received during the quest. The elves leave Middle Earth, knowing that their time is past and the age of men has arrived. In Coppola&#39;s The Godfather, Michael starts out saying he&#39;s not like his family, but in protecting his father, he is pulled into the family business. Contrast that with Moana, which I just watched, where everyone is happy at the end and there is no downside for any of the characters.<br /><br />Victories have a cost in life and in many movies, but rarely in animated family films.Mark Mayersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00065971589878678848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-32901104708161651222017-08-22T10:53:58.691-04:002017-08-22T10:53:58.691-04:00I agree with what you and David are saying, althou...I agree with what you and David are saying, although it seems you are somewhat conflating &quot;consequences&quot; with &quot;death&quot; (as in Bambi, Nemo, and Up). I think Iron Giant does a nice job of this, since although the Giant&#39;s death is not final from the audience perspective, it is to the boy, and is an outgrowth of the film&#39;s overall themes of violence, death, and the ability to choose. It is interesting that children&#39;s literature readily wrestles with this-- Bridge to Terebithia, even the Harry Potter series as a whole (the movies less so). But it&#39;s difficult- in the kids book series I co-wrote (the Books of Ore) Disney let us explore heavy themes of morality, death, the consequences of our everyday choices, etc, but the books did not find an audience. I don&#39;t know whether that was because of the weight of the themes or for some other reason. But as someone who tries to tell stories of weight and purpose beyond surface pleasures, I am also tired of the frivolity of most animation. I guess we just have to embrace the Kaguyas, Red Turtles, etc when they come along.AddiePrayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02759164240998658874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-7802393062687027042017-08-22T06:38:20.640-04:002017-08-22T06:38:20.640-04:00Hey Mark! I feel the problem here is you&#39;re fa...Hey Mark! I feel the problem here is you&#39;re falling into the trap of connecting the style to the genre. Tisk tisk! As you pointed out, several anime films have consequences. Not every film can be Reservoir Dogs, or Seven, but I definitely agree that the West puts out too many Emojis and Hotel Transylvanias.<br /><br />I&#39;m hoping you&#39;ve seen &quot;Grave of The Fireflies&quot;. I just saw it last week for the first time. I think it would have you a good dose of consequence.<br /><br />In theaters RIGHT NOW is &quot;In This Corner of The World&quot;. If you missed &quot;Your Name&quot; definitely check it out too.<br /><br />I&#39;ve been enjoying working through Mamoru Hosoda&#39;s filmography. &quot;Wolf Children&quot;, &quot;Summer Wars&quot;, and &quot;The Boy And The Beast&quot; were all satisfying to me.<br /><br />I hope the West can start making more serious productions. Films like &quot;Up&quot; do it for me better than Titan A.E. though. Stephen Tuckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15517503672732814609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-50266476739428813492017-08-19T09:47:23.958-04:002017-08-19T09:47:23.958-04:00Most of the films , even if they are mildly entert...Most of the films , even if they are mildly entertaining at the time I&#39;m watching them don&#39;t stick with me , I never have any desire to see them again or even think of them. I&#39;m struck by one of the quotes you included in your review of &quot;The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness&quot; : <br /><br /><i>&quot;I believe many works in this world are unnecessary. I think there are a lot of them like that. At one point, I thought if I had the time to be making anime like that, I&#39;d rather devote my energy somewhere else. A Takahata-san movie will be a masterpiece for 10 years, 20 years. I figured it would be a work you&#39;d want to see again and again. <br /><br />Create 100 things in 10 years or create 1 thing in 10 years.&quot; </i><br /><br />-Yoshiaki Nishimura ,<br />Producer of ‘Princess Kaguya’<br /><br />from the DVD extra ‘Ushiko Investigates!’ on the <br />DVD of the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, David Netherynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-3870090969352809542017-08-19T09:37:44.885-04:002017-08-19T09:37:44.885-04:00Anonymous writes in the comment above:
I&#39;m a...Anonymous writes in the comment above: <br /><br />I&#39;m a native speaker of Japanese and I think the translation might be misleading there.<br /><br />When asked what he likes about Lasseter, Miyazaki answered:<br /><br /><i>&quot;What do I like about him? You know, our relationship is beyond description. Lasseter is there, always there for me. &quot;</i><br /><br />Thank you for posting that clarification, Anonymous . That puts a different light on his remarks. I wonder how many other examples there are of poor translation that contribute to the image many people have of Miyazaki as a &#39;grouch&#39; ? David Netherynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-13346084158306497292017-08-19T09:26:00.741-04:002017-08-19T09:26:00.741-04:00Thanks for posting this , Mark. It&#39;s an impor...Thanks for posting this , Mark. It&#39;s an important essay. I&#39;ve had the same thoughts . It&#39;s difficult to stay engaged with most of the modern animated films (and the live-action/cg tentpole comic book franchise films) for all those reasons mentioned . There&#39;s nothing of substance to engage with. David Netherynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-83790175471458430952017-06-27T00:16:24.338-04:002017-06-27T00:16:24.338-04:00Since it&#39;s been 5 years and Jack didn&#39;t re...Since it&#39;s been 5 years and Jack didn&#39;t respond, I thought I&#39;d go back and leave a few cents to what he had said on some points.<br /><br /><i>When I refused he had me fired. I was in the process of styling the BGs for “Trees” and “Saganaki” and had everything ready to start painting when I was fired and Jules took over using my color keys and painted the BGs for both shows. He did not give me credit for my work on those two shows.</i><br /><br />Still, I did spot your credit on &quot;Village Band&quot; anyway (despite sharing the spot with Jules), but I&#39;m sure it was one of those situations that was hard to maneuver through when you&#39;re just starting out in the business. There&#39;s always someone above you who might have the upper hand anyway.<br /><br /><i>These shorts were combined with others and were exhibited as the “Ham and Hattie” shorts and one out of the series won an Oscar, so they were not “bad, but specifically bad in ways that illuminate what went wrong with UPA” as you say.</i><br /><br />Technically &quot;Trees and Jamaica Daddy&quot; was nominated, none of the other Ham &amp; Hattie shorts got further than that.Christopher Sobieniakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09838106041175506925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-60546304298165854952017-06-24T08:24:48.293-04:002017-06-24T08:24:48.293-04:00I saw this wonderful film in both French (with sub...I saw this wonderful film in both French (with subtitles) and English. The English dub is good, but I think the French was a little more effective. The film captures subtleties of emotion that other animated films wouldn&#39;t even attempt. You come away loving the characters. And a terrific screenplay, to be sure. Thanks for your thoughts on it.Galen Fotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11320908010368532193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-31272383359853726102017-05-15T02:31:34.108-04:002017-05-15T02:31:34.108-04:00Doctor&#39;s films get away with all kinds of logi...Doctor&#39;s films get away with all kinds of logic problems, but who cares? Would a person prefer that UP didn&#39;t include talking dogs or a knock down-drag out fight between a hero and villain with a combined age of over 160 years? Of course not. Animation can be so appealing, so magical, that an audience will overlook logic flaws. <br /><br />But that doesn’t let an animated film maker off the hook. <br /><br />A truly successful movie should satisfy the needs of both the heart AND the head. Mr. Doctor&#39;s films may be chock full of fun, but they don&#39;t FEEL completely right. To enjoy them, you often have to give the film makers a pass.<br /><br />But why should you? When you plunk down your 15 bucks for a ticket, don’t you deserve to see something that works on an artistic AND intellectual level? Dudok de Wit says they &quot;...couldn&#39;t find words that seemed to fit the style of the film.&quot; This is because his movie only appeals to the audience&#39;s emotions. As soon as you introduce any instance of brain power into the story, the film falls apart. <br /><br />If the movie did include dialogue, the first thing the adult man would say to the turtle-woman would be &quot;What the hell? Are you a turtle or aren&#39;t you? And our kid, what exactly is he? If you can talk to turtles, please tell them to go away and find someone who can GET US THE HELL OFF THIS ISLAND!&quot;<br /><br />This movie has been described by the press as “a gentle fable” and “a profoundly simple meditation.” But it’s really just attractive, well animated gobbledygook. It had no point, and worse yet, put the audience in the position to try and interpret what the filmmakers were trying to say! After seeing a movie made by professionals, certainly an audience deserves to leave a theater with a few answers… not just a bunch of questions.chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12509178948884361307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-32775521990284267692017-04-06T06:23:01.295-04:002017-04-06T06:23:01.295-04:00I think the underlying issue is that people have b...I think the underlying issue is that people have become so used to hearing that big corporations are abusing the <a href="https://weikbankruptcyattorney.blogspot.com/2017/02/its-time-to-stop-believing-these.html" rel="nofollow">bankruptcy</a> laws, that when a legitimate one takes place, we all tend to look at funny. Some companies like the studio had no other alternative, it’s not to game the system, it was out of necessity to bridge the gap.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01606288909811718009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-66783561384454845642017-03-03T23:29:21.189-05:002017-03-03T23:29:21.189-05:00This is one of the issues with rich kids. Travis n...This is one of the issues with rich kids. Travis never approached Laika like a business. To him, having an animation studio was a new toy to play with. He may have gotten bored of it. But I hope not. It&#39;s hard out there for stop motion animators, and Laika was a good place even if conditions were worse than the profitable studios. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-22905536019418723102017-02-22T21:08:54.149-05:002017-02-22T21:08:54.149-05:00Ah, the days of long term animation work where you...Ah, the days of long term animation work where you would be able to retire comfortable at 65. Truly a golden age. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-37160980513778834502017-02-22T21:07:34.381-05:002017-02-22T21:07:34.381-05:00As long as global capitalism doesn&#39;t come cras...As long as global capitalism doesn&#39;t come crashing down or the world enters some kind of economic or environmental tailspin, I don&#39;t see the global demand for animation decreasing. It&#39;ll probably level off as the population levels off around 11 billion. Unless VR really catches on and supplants the traditional feature framework as a medium. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-81339884722894369222017-02-06T07:18:38.682-05:002017-02-06T07:18:38.682-05:00Mark, where do you think folks like Pete Docter &a...Mark, where do you think folks like Pete Docter &amp; Dudok de Wit, filmmakers with obvious talent and unique voice, are going wrong with their films in attempting to make use of the animation medium &amp; the strengths of its storytelling techniques? Could this be substance for another essay/lecture like your one on &quot;Don&#39;t Pitch to a Buyer, Pitch to the Audience”?<br /><br />THE POWER OF ANIMATION; is that you can show the audience things they cannot see in standard film. Animation can make metaphor REAL in the context of a creative visual filter for a story. As an animations staging &amp; visuals become less literal, its content is freed to become more emotionally specific. Metaphors &amp; thoughts expressed using the beauty of visual art &amp; illustration is not something that can simply be copied from reality. It’s cultivated from the context of the director &amp; viewers mind(s) understanding visual association to convey thoughts/meaning. Animation enhances this by creating specific pictorial representation to do so. Representation of the real world above recreating of the real world. Every expression, whether it concerns music, literature or visual art, it’s all about sending a message to the outside world. Making another person aware of an inner emotion, shared experience or striking idea. To make a personal thought visible to others in a cognitively sensual way, tickling their minds-eye/interest, and trying to communicate something in a way so that they are not uncertain about it from an emotional point of view. The issue that makes invention a creative challenge is that there are multiple basic concepts about your fiction an audience needs to grasp before the rest of it beings to unfold. Without this you get uncertainty to a story. We often forget the seemingly simple and stupidly direct “realities” that you need to establish, in order for your grand fantasy concepts &amp; creative viewpoints to actually make sense and be communicated successfully. This balanced against the Tyranny of trying to be concise, and simply being unable to give every context necessary in a single statement or moment in a limited amount of screen time. In trying to create, do or even say anything you have a limited scope of time &amp; resources. Trying to say, point out or cover everything in a fiction so that it somehow matches with the scrutiny of a real world context is irrational &amp; restrictive for a filmmaker. To paraphrase you &amp; others: <i>“What I hope to get from a film is an emotional experience. Despite logic flaws, if the film is emotionally satisfying throughout it can maintain audience cognition/reasoning. But the undoing of this is if too much happens by authorial fiat, where it doesn&#39;t correspond to any internal logic of the film.”</i> The problem in creative fiction is an internal logic often becomes the extrapolation of any fictional concept or device taken into the real world and beyond the context of the silver screen that it was intended for. How do you avoid a level of this creeping into a story that isn&#39;t set in a pure &amp; directly relatable reality like our own, aka the fantasy setting? Can we nail down what aspects make this successful vs not? Below are some great videos for context on the strengths of the animated medium &amp; inspiration for this line of enquiry asking what you might suggest the strengths of the animation medium are, and how to navigate them.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anQeqlax0qk" rel="nofollow">Andy Saladino on Isao Takahata &amp; the filter of Animation</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9WEyuMq0Yk" rel="nofollow">Roger Ebert on Grave of The Fireflies &amp; Animation</a> &amp; <a href="http://invisibleinkblog.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/why-deus-ex-machina-doesnt-make.html" rel="nofollow">Deus-Ex-Machina</a> &amp; <a href="http://invisibleinkblog.blogspot.com.au/2006/09/whats-wrong-with-emotions-anyway.html" rel="nofollow">Emotions</a> by Brian McDonald, Author of invisible inkMatthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08064510044826161777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-89598529936099628542017-01-28T22:09:07.451-05:002017-01-28T22:09:07.451-05:00I don&#39;t know for certain, but I&#39;d guess th...I don&#39;t know for certain, but I&#39;d guess that the reasons were economic. There were seven production companies involved. I&#39;m sure that most, if not all, of them brought money to the production. Mark Mayersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00065971589878678848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-32304986182828808292017-01-28T19:11:40.694-05:002017-01-28T19:11:40.694-05:00Interesting that the film was produced by Ghibli b...Interesting that the film was produced by Ghibli but the production was actually done in Europe. What&#39;s the story behind that? Does Ghibli no longer have access to the animation talent, or was de Wit&#39;s sensibilities more European and so working with a European crew made more sense? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com